Auma Obama | |
---|---|
Born | 1960 (age 63–64) |
Nationality | Kenyan |
Citizenship | Kenyan, British |
Education | Heidelberg University (BA) University of Bayreuth (PhD) |
Occupation(s) | Community activist, sociologist, journalist, author |
Years active | 1980–present |
Known for | Community activism |
Father | Barack Obama Sr. |
Relatives |
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Rita Auma Obama (born 1960) is a Kenyan-British community activist, sociologist, journalist, author, and half-sister of the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama. Obama serves as the executive chairwoman of Sauti Kuu Foundation (Strong Voices Foundation), a non-profit organisation that helps orphans and other young people struggling with poverty in Kenya. [1] [2] [3]
Auma Obama is the daughter of Barack Obama Sr. and his first wife, Kezia Obama ( née Aoko). [4] [5] [6] She is the older half-sister of Barack Obama. After attending a local elementary school and The Kenya High School for secondary education (1973–1978), she secured a scholarship to attend university in Germany. She studied German at Heidelberg University from 1981 until 1987. After her graduation from Heidelberg, she went for graduate studies at the University of Bayreuth, graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1996. [2] She also studied at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. [7] Obama's final project at the Film Academy was the twenty-minute film All That Glitters (1993), which blends genre conventions in depicting the vulnerability of Black lives in post-unification Germany. [8]
Obama lived in the United Kingdom after her studies. While there, she helped her mother, Kezia, to relocate from Kenya to the UK. [5] Kezia was granted British citizenship in 2011. [4]
In 1996, Obama married an Englishman, Ian Manners. They are the parents of Akinyi Manners (born 1997). Obama and Manners divorced in 2000. [2] [9] In 2007, Obama and Akinyi relocated to Kenya. [10]
Obama worked for five years in Kenya with the international charity organisation CARE International before starting her own charity, Sauti Kuu Foundation, sometimes referred to as Auma Obama Foundation. [11]
In 2010, the Jacobs Foundation’s board of trustees has appointed her as a new member. This foundation (the 1st wealthiest Swiss charitable organization), with its registered office in Zürich, provides funding and support worldwide and has an annual funding budget amounting to approximately CHF 35 million ($ 33.66 million in 2010) for projects benefiting young people and their integration into society. [12]
In 2011, Obama was interviewed for Turk Pipkin's documentary Building Hope and was the subject of a German documentary film The Education of Auma Obama . In 2017, Obama was honoured with the fourth International TÜV Rheinland Global Compact Award in Cologne. [13] At the award ceremony, she received a specially made bronze sculpture Der Griff nach den Sternen (Reaching for the stars) by artist Hannes Helmke. [14] Obama is the author of the book And Then Life Happens, released in 2012 by St. Martin's Press. [11]
Obama is a member of the World Future Council. She is also a member of the board of trustees of the Germany Reading Foundation, as well as a member of the advisory board of the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies at the University of Bayreuth. She serves on the council of the Kilimanjaro Initiative in Nairobi. Since 2014, Dr. Obama has been the patron of the International Storymoja Festivals in Kenya. She is also the initiator of the Sauti Kuu Act Now Awards. [15]
In 2021, she agreed to participate in the German dance show Let's Dance , the German version of Dancing with the Stars . She reached 5th place. [16]
Wangarĩ Maathai was a Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Kenyatta University (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Nairobi, Kenya. It acquired the status of university in 1985, being the third university after University of Nairobi (1970) and Moi University (1984). As of October 2014, it was one of 23 public universities in the country.
Stanley Ann Dunham was an American anthropologist who specialized in the economic anthropology and rural development of Indonesia. She was the mother of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States.
Barack Hussein Obama Sr. was a Kenyan senior governmental economist and the father of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. He is a central figure of his son's memoir, Dreams from My Father (1995). Obama married in 1954 and had two children with his first wife, Kezia. He was selected for a special program to attend college in the United States and studied at the University of Hawaii where he met Stanley Ann Dunham, whom he married in 1961 following the conception of his son, Barack. Obama and Dunham divorced three years later. Obama then went to Harvard University for graduate school, where he earned an M.A. in economics, and returned to Kenya in 1964. He saw his son Barack once more, when his son was about 10.
Sarah Onyango Obama was a Kenyan educator and philanthropist. She was the third wife of Hussein Onyango Obama, the paternal grandfather of U.S. president Barack Obama and helped raise his father, Barack Obama Sr. She was known by her short name as Sarah Obama and was sometimes referred to as Sarah Ogwel, Sarah Hussein Obama, or Sarah Anyango Obama. She lived in Nyang'oma Kogelo village, 48 km west of western Kenya's main city, Kisumu, on the edge of Lake Victoria.
The family of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, is a prominent American family active in law, education, activism and politics. Obama's immediate family circle was the first family of the United States from 2009 to 2017, and are the first such family of African-American descent. His immediate family includes his wife Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha.
Nyang'oma Kogelo, also known as Kogelo, is a village in Siaya County, Kenya. It is located near the equator, 60 kilometres (37 mi) west-northwest of Kisumu, the provincial capital of the former Nyanza province. The population of Nyangoma-Kogelo is 3,648.
Abon'go Malik "Roy" Obama is a Kenyan-American businessman and former political candidate known for being the half-brother of 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, and the eldest son of economist Barack Obama Sr.
Zeituni Onyango was the half-aunt of United States President Barack Obama; she was born into the Luo tribe in Kenya. Born during the British rule of the Protectorate of Kenya, Onyango was the half-sister of Barack Obama Sr., father to the president. The younger Obama refers to her as "Aunti Zeituni" in his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father. In 2002 she applied for political asylum in the United States but was denied. She became notable when her case was leaked in the final days of the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign in which Barack Obama was the Democratic candidate, attracting international media attention.
TÜVs are internationally active, independent service companies from Germany and Austria that test, inspect and certify technical systems, facilities and objects of all kinds in order to minimize hazards and prevent damages. The TÜV companies are organized into three large holding companies, TÜV Nord, TÜV Rheinland and TÜV SÜD, along with the smaller independent companies TÜV Thüringen, TÜV Saarland and TÜV Austria.
Michael Hüther is a German economist who currently serves as director of the Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft. He has previously been the chief economist of DekaBank. Hüther also is an honorary professor at the European Business School International University Schloss Reichartshausen.
Obama is a surname. It most commonly refers to Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States.
Sauti Sol is a Kenyan Afropop band formed in Nairobi in 2005 by vocalists Bien-Aimé Baraza, Willis Chimano and Savara Mudigi. Initially an a cappella group, guitarist Polycarp Otieno joined before they named themselves Sauti Sol.
Susan Mboya is a corporate executive and philanthropist who is the Principal and International Advisor for Navigators Global, a Washington DC–based consulting firm. Susan has been a corporate executive for over 25 years and has held a number of senior executive positions at global multinational firms. Susan was the Global Director for Oral B Oral Care at Procter and Gamble for five years and was the General Manager of Coca-Cola South Africa from 2008 to 2011. Susan is the immediate former President of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation and the group director of the Eurasia Africa Group (EAG) for women’s economic empowerment at Coca-Cola. and is the daughter of the late Tom Mboya, a Kenyan nationalist leader, and one of the founding fathers of the Republic of Kenya and the late Pamela Mboya, a renowned diplomat who was Kenya’s representative to UN Habitat. Tom Mboya was a well-known trade unionist, educationist, Pan Africanist, author, and a Cabinet Minister in Kenyas first post-independence Government. She is also the former First Lady of Nairobi County, Kenya's largest county and the capital city and economic centre of Kenya. Susan holds a number of board positions including the Chair of Liberty Group, a publicly traded company in the nairobi stock exchange. Susan is the Founder of the Zawadi Africa Educational Fund, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that provides scholarships and leadership development training to academically gifted, marginalized African girls to enable them to attend top colleges and universities around the world with the objective of creating a pipeline of African female leaders. The Zawadi Africa program is based on the Africa Student Airlifts program launched by her father and President John F. Kennedy in 1959 that enabled several participants including Barack Obama Sr, father of President Barack Obama, and Professor Wangari Mathaai to study in the U.S.
Wendy Kimani is a Kenyan singer, songwriter, actress and entertainer. She came into prominence after being the first runners-up in the second season of Tusker Project Fame. As a singer she is known for her songs; "Haiwi Haiwi" featuring Bien of Sauti Sol, "Chali", "Unajua" featured by Gilad among others. She released her debut album dubbed as My Essence launched in August 2013. As an actress she is known for starring in the television series, Rush.
Sanda Ojiambo, is a Kenyan administrator who serves as the as assistant secretary-general of the United Nations Global Compact, effective April 2022. Before that, from 17 June 2020 until 22 April 2022, she served as executive director of the United Nations Global Compact, succeeding Lise Kingo of Denmark.
Vivian Akinyi Komullo is a Kenyan footballer who plays as a goalkeeper. She has been a member of the Kenya women's national team.
Ursula Gather is a German statistician and academic administrator. From 2008 to 2020, she was rector of TU Dortmund University. Since 2013, Gather has been chairwoman of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation.
Elizabeth Akinyi is a Kenyan amateur boxer, and is the Kenyan national welterweight champion. She made her debut in March 2016, when she was defeated by Goramane Rady.
Achola Pala is a Kenyan anthropologist, sociologist, and women's policy specialist. Born in a small town in western Kenya, Pala completed her education at the University of East Africa and Harvard. She worked as a researcher with the University of Nairobi and later was the head of social science research at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology. Concerned about women's empowerment and the impact of public policies on women, she worked with numerous divisions of the United Nations including UNESCO, UNICEF, the United Nations University, and the World Food Council, before becoming chief of the Africa Section of UNIFEM. She also participated in numerous conferences on women including the 1980, 1985, and 1995 World Conferences on Women. She worked with Esther Jonathan Wandeka to gain governmental support for the 1985 conference held in Nairobi and was instrumental in introducing the peace torch at the 1995 Beijing conference.
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